Where do I begin? Ok - I was born in a crossfire hurricane - whoa sorry, a Jumping Jack Flash moment there. Actually, I was born in Chicago, IL on NOV. 20, 1969. I'm not going to go into specifics of my childhood - it would be just way too long. But I will say this much: I lived in Chicago until I was about 8 then we moved to the Boston, MA area (my dad transfered for his job) for several years then we went back and forth between Chicago and Boston about 3 more times. We never lived in a single apartment or home for longer than 2 years or stayed in the same city for longer than about 5. This repetitive cycle continued until I was about 18 or so when we just stayed in the Boston area.
During my 'younger years' I never really had any friends - oh sure I had a friend or 2 but no one of "real importance", I was very much a loner it was like this until I was in the 7th grade or so. Here I did meet a couple of people that did become my good friends (brothers Joe & Mike Heft and another kid John Johnson). Granted we were all pretty close but during this time, we were all pretty much "stoners" - we hung around together to get high. By the time I was 15, I was a full blown alcoholic & drug addict - there was virtually no drug I haven't tried - but that was my fault - no one elses.
By the time I was 21, I attempted suicide probably 5 or 6 times - just goes to show you how good I am at that... or maybe I did succeed am I am just 1 of the walking dead? lol My job history is just as reckless... I've been a data entry clerk, a landscaper, a cashier at a major super market, a day laborer (1 job I had here was I was a toxic chemical hauler for 2 days), an operator at an answering service. But there is 1 thing I have always been good at - been good with my hands and very good with computers - was designing my own games at the age of 12 using a Radio Shack Tandy 1000HX (wow that goes back a ways).
While I was in a relationship with an older woman that shall remain nameless except by calling her BITCH, I went to school for Computer Repair and Networking. Here, I graduated with the highest mark that, that school has ever seen in it's 20 year history (99.94% - shattering the old record of 98.2%). After graduation, I did get a job in the computer field but it was only for season work during the holidays. After the New Year came & went, so was I. I then went back to school (same school) - this time for Networking Operations. While I was going to night school for this course, the Eduactional Director (who was my teacher in my 1st course) asked if I was looking for a job - I was no dummy - I said yes.
During the daytime, I assisted in revamping the entire Computer Repair course. Most of what was in this course was so old, it didn't apply anymore to very little to none 'real world' experience. I designed well over 50 labs projects as well as doing some of the teaching myself. This gave me valuable experience in the field that I later took with me.
Anyways, my home life with the BITCH was just getting worse & worse. To give you a small example: she had to take the bus to work and at one point we lived right across the street from the bus stop and the bus comes every 12 minutes. If she missed the 7:04am bus and had to wait until the 7:16am bus, she remained pissed through out the entire day and when she came home, she would slam the front door, throw dishes, yell, scream, whatever... when I ask what's wrong, she would scream back "I missed the fucking bus this morning and had to wait." So she missed the bus - big deal - you might be mad for a few minutes but the whole day? Wait just a second here - missed the bus? Errr - how? We lived across the street from the bus stop - how could she miss it? Whatever - it was her problem.
She (the BITCH) was also the type of person that she would get jealous REAL QUICK. 2 examples: 1) I was in the passenger side of her car, she was driving, her son & 1 of his friends were in the backseat. Me being me and my sarcastic remarks - we saw what would be an OBVIOUS street hooker. With the windows up, I said a sarcastic remark of "Gee honey I wonder what you do for a living". The BITCH then pulls the car over, leans over me and opens my door. She starts screaming at the top of her lungs "What, you want fuck her? Why don't you get out of the car and be with her. That's what you really want right? To fuck her!" Where the hell did she get THAT from?? 2) Her and I were over at my parents house one day and my mom stated that when my dad goes on the road (he worked for the railroad), she wanted me to come over and help her re-arrange the furniture (one of my moms favorite things to do). I agreed - we get home and the BITCH gets all over my ass with "Gee I wonder why your mother asked YOU to come over when your dad isn't home" I restated that it was to help rearrange the furniture. She then states something like "Yeah right. I know that you 2 have a special relationship." I stopped dead in my tracks and said "What the fuck??? Are you saying that you think my mom & I are sleeping together?" She fired back "You said it - not me!". As you can tell, this was one crazy BITCH I was dealing with. Just too bad it took me 7 years to get out of her life.
Ok, I'm getting off track here. I got rid of the BITCH and moved in with a homosexual. NO it wasn't anything like that! He was a coworker that needed to get out of where he was living and I obviously needed to get out of where I was. We moved in together and split the rent & utilities - in a sense, we were saving each other money. This also helped me too - I stopped drinking, stopped doing cocaine & everything else that was considered 'hard stuff' - oh sure I still smoked pot but considering the alternative - it was definitely a downgrade.
I live with him for about 6 years at 3 different places (Revere Mass, Rowley Mass and Salisbury Mass). He lived his lifestyle and I lived mine - he never brought anyone or anything home with him while I remained without a relationship - oh well - shit happens. We also worked at 3 places together - 2 computer repair places (Computer Depot in Lynn Mass, PCs for Everyone in Cambridge Mass and Cablevision Systems in Allston Mass). When it came to a job, I grew up a lot - worked at Computer Depot for about a year, PCs for Everyone for 3 years & Cablevision (which later became AT&T Cable and then Comcast Cable) for a little over 4 years.
Things were going so good that I sold my stock in AMD (bought 40 shares at $9 - stock jumped to over $70 then split then jumped back up to over $50 when I cashed out for a little over $4,000 - not bad for a $360 investment huh?) and purchased a house in Lawrence Mass. The house I purchased was a 3 story old Victorian with 1/4 acre of land for $110,000 - yes, it did look like it was going to need some work - maybe $40,000 over time but if done right, I was looking at that I could sell it once it's fixed up for an EASY $250,000 - a profit of $100,000. Things were really looking up........................ UNTIL:
I find a lot of things wrong with the house after I moved in - like for instance, the boiler didn't work - I moved in during the middle of winter in Jan and Jan in New England is COLDDDDDDDD so I found this out VERY QUICKLY. This boiler is one of those real old boilers that you have to fill with water - it has a 10,000 gallon tank below the basement floor - there was a crack in the boiler foundation about 1/2 way down.... it was going to take over $15,000 to fix. Then the upstairs toilet didn't flush right - I found that one of the elbow pieces was flex tubing that had a kink in it instead of a standard PVC elbow. While I was in the 1st floor ceiling fixing the elbow, I saw that the 10"X8" support beams were burnt down to anywhere from 6"X4" to 2"X4" even in some spots was down to 2"X2". I found out from a neighbor that years ago the house was set on fire and instead of fixing the problem, they "passed the buck" onto me - no wonder I felt the flooring on the 2nd floor sink a bit. I got several contractors in and give me an estimate - I got estimates anywhere from $150,000 to $225,000 - they would have to totally gut the house. This drove me DEEP into depression and I became a drug addict. I wanted to escape the reality I was in - I was going into financial ruin with no way out. I got addicted to crack cocaine and was deep into it - spending well over $2,000 a week.
At this point, I just gave up - gave up on the house, gave up on me, gave up on everything - I just didn't care anymore. When John (the guy I lived with for 6 years before) got me out of that house - whatever happened to it - happened to it - I didn't care - I just moved out. This ended up being one of if not the best decisions I ever made in my life. While I was living with John, I went onto a gaming site on the internet - a site called games.com and played the game Yahtzee for hours on end. In this site, I found a few leagues that had player vs player on a ladder system with Tournament Directors running these tournaments. I met several people on this site and became good friends with a lot of them. There was Adoptapet (Dianna), DECIETFUL (Amy), KGemini (Kristen), BBRADY (Brady) along with a few others.
Granted, this was on the internet but it took me away from my dreadful reality. Over several months, I became real close to Adoptapet (Dianna). I know that this will sound weird to most people - but we fell in love. We finally met - I took a flight from Boston to Detroit and stayed for 3 days. Over the next few months, we were working on how to get me out to Detroit. Finally Dianna came out to Boston for a week to help me pack. We packed up all my stuff and sent it to Detroit via UPS while Dianna and I took a train back.
Side note: Dianna's name at game.com was originally Adoptapet (she has pets - when you have pets you adopt them - hence the name lol) and mine was Doug31ma (first name is Doug, I was 31 yrs old when I joined and living in Mass - boring name I know). So how did I become Demonboy and Dianna become Angelgirl? While Dianna and I were on the phone with another friend (Kristen aka KGemini) something was said - I don't remember what exactly - and I did this very low demonic growl - Kristen said that, that was just too weird I did the growl perfectly and she's the one who started calling me Demonboy. Well since opposites attract, if I'm Demonboy then it would "only make sense" that Dianna is Angelgirl.
Within 2 months of moving to Detroit, I found a job - without a doubt the best job I have ever had. We lived together for 2 years and then we got married - the uniting of Heaven and Hell. We got married on a VERY memberable date: Sept 11. Why did we choose that date? Easy - instead of remembering something tragic - World Trade Center - remember something good - our marriage. We've been married for a little over 3 years now and are very happy together.
In the 5 years together, we've already been through a lot - I've had brain surgery (for a rare condition called Chari 1 Malformation - basically, my brain sinks into my spinal column and 'sits' on every nerve causing extreme dizziness, off balance and several other symptoms), at one point, we've also lived paycheck to paycheck - barely making it, and several other personal & marital issues and we've survived. If we can survive everything that we have been through - then we can survive anything - but one thing for sure - I wouldn't change a thing - I love Dianna and would do anything for her.
MISC THINGS ABOUT ME:
I love all things death related even pictures of actual deaths. I love horror movies - the bloodier & scarier the better - From 1408 to Wrong Turn and every letter in between - favorites include Friday the 13th, The Omen, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Lost Boys, the 1920's original vampire movie Nosferatu, Child's Play, Texas Chainsaw Massacre - just to name a few.
As for music, I love heavy metal (Metallica, Anthrax, AC/DC, Danzig), punk rock (Misfits, The Ramones, The Fugs, Blondie - YES Blondie started out in the punk rock scene), death metal (Morbid Angel, Amorphis, Deicide, Six Feet Under, 3 Inches of Blood), humor metal (Gwar & Scatterbrain) and some country (Toby Keith, Hank Williams JR & Trace Adkins). I absolutely can not stand R & B or Rap - I HATE them both with a passion. I also HATE commericial radio - I'd rather listen to sports talk radio all day then to listen to the crap that radio stations spew all over the air-waves.
I'm an avid poker player. I play anywhere from 10-15 hrs a week online ( Poker School Online , Poker Stars , Full Tilt & Ultimate Bet - I use the same name at them all - Count_Lafey) and I also play in a local poker league anywhere from 2 - 3 times a week and I play in home games as often as I can. Also, I'm a member of the Poker Players Alliance . I'm always trying to better myself here with hopes to get into the World Series of Poker , World Poker Tour or the Heartland Poker Tour . Getting in either one of these and maybe not winning but 'getting the money' would be fantastic. My favorite pro poker players are Phil Gordon, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Mike "the mouth" Matusow, Annie Duke, Clonie Gowen, Howard "The Professor" Lederer, Daniel Negreanu & Doyle Brunson. But I also do respect all of the other pro's out there - anyone of them can beat me easily lol Check out my Poker blog .
In general - I am not afraid of anything. I've had a gun pointed to both my head and chest, I've been an auto accident, I've been in a fire, I've lived in gang land areas where there's constant violence. Nothing scares or surprises me anymore. I also cannot stand liars or cheats - then again, who doesn't? Even cheating in a relationship - to me, there is NO SECOND CHANCE! If you cheat - you're gone no questions asked! If Dianna ever cheats on me - she'll get divorce papers handed to her the next day - same token, if I should ever cheat on her (not that I would) but I would get a divorce - even if she were to forgive me - that's fine - but if you cheat, then there's obviously something wrong in the relationship - if it's that bad that you needed to cheat, then no point in staying.
I also LOVE WWE wrestling. I've been watching it on & off for over 20 years now. Some of my favorite wrestlers are/were: The Undertaker (my all time favorite), Kane, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, HHH (when he's a 'face' but especially when he's with DX), George the Animal Steele, Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Brett Heart, Ultimate Warrior, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, Batista, John Cena, Bobby Lashley, Jeff & Matt Hardy, Stone Cold Steve Austin, JBL & Farooq (when they were the Acololyte Protection Agency *the APA*), Tazz & Jesse Ventura.
Speaking of sports, I'm a DIE-HARD Chicago Cubs fan. I was about 10 when we moved back to Chicago and into the Wrigleyville area - a few blocks from Wrigley Field. Sad to say, I had very little to no friends but when I heard the crowd down the street, it just allured me. I never knew what baseball was before going to my first game. I walked down the block and saw a lot of people just waited on Waveland Ave for a HR ball - I even talked to a few. The next day I went to my first game in the bleachers. I was an immediate bleacher bum. I was welcomed - everyone was so kewll & nice and me being by myself, a lot of people watched over me - making sure I wasn't getting into trouble, etc. I learned of the game from the bleacher fans. A HR ball that was hit by Bill Buckner landed near where I was - the fan who caught it knew that this was my first game and gave it to me. After the game, he showed me where the players parking lot was where we could get the autographs - I stayed there for hours waiting for every single player to leave to see if I could get their autographs. I then went to every single home game that there was (that didn't fall on a school day that is) - I knew the fans, I knew the players - from Bill Buckner to Ivan DeJesus to Jo-dy Jo-dy Davis to Leon Durham, Ryne Sandberg, Lee Smith (who taught me how to throw a curve ball after a game), Ron Cey, Bump Wills, Larry Bowa, Bobby Dernier, Gary Matthews, Rick Sutcliffe & even Shawon Dunston, etc etc... I was such a regular that I've been on the field multiple times when I sat in the grandstands and got the autographs before the game near the dugouts... I even knew the ball girl Marla Collins... I cared (and still do) about these guys - I felt every win & gut wrenching loss... as a kid I cried when they won the Eastern Division in 84' - then cried again when they lost to the Padres in the National League Championship Series... To this day I'm proud to be a die hard Cubs fan and I bleed Cubbie Blue...
I think I've rambled too long already so I'll end it there. My life is literally an open book so if you ever wanted to ask me anything - then go ahead and ask - I'll be honest and answer. No question is too personal. Laterz.